TBA
n/soto
As Chef Niki Nakayama and Chef Carole Iida-Nakayama's second restaurant, n/soto explores more on the collaboration side. Tonight's mean was with Regarding Her, a woman-supporting non-profit, in collaboration with Chef Mei Lin and Chef Jihee Kim.
The overall result was a bit mixed; three of the four dishes in the first half of the menu were okay, one was a bit too plain. Sakizuke was artful but not up to the level of n/naka or other higher-priced meals, and the kanpachi marinated in citrus was decidedly overwhelmed by the citrus. The shrimp chip, sakura cream, and caviar was more crunchy than anything more interesting. The second course of sashimi was akami (bluefin tuna), which was quality but again not exactly a high-end experience. Kushiyaki (grilled) scallop continued the trend, tasty but not memorable.
Only real miss of the night was the spring vegetable, white asparagus and pickled rhubarb atop a jelly and some sort of white sauce (ground sesame?), again topped with caviar. Not exactly in harmony, although perhaps providing guests with a knife so they could chop the stalks into smaller pieces and eat them together might have saved it?
Agemono (salt and pepper prawn with fresh shrimp chips) was like the akami and the scallop, actually a step up as the lightly breaded shrimp and the chip were both perfectly deep fried. But this is a tough dish to truly elevate. The surpriseof the meal was the Yakimono; grilled quail normally is a bony waste of time, but this one was quite meaty and delicious. The citrus flavorings again I am not sure I agree with, but it was easily the most unique part of the meal, and one of the more tasty bits.
A rice dish was next, with four bits to mix in (celery crab root munchim, tomato cilantro geotjeori, pa kimchi, mushroom yuba bokkeum), not super interesting but something about it was very comforting. Add in a seaweed scallop soup and it was mostly definitely a homey meal. The American waygu shortrib, done in a char siu glaze, that accommpanied it, was excellent.
Skipped alcohol and stuck to mocktails, the fake old fashioned was so-so, the strawberry and rhubarb was excellent. Concluding the meal with a mango coconut sago pomelo dessert worked wonderfully, a successful elevation of a common dessert in Asian culture. Overall verdict was an enjoyable meal, but if you didn't make this one-time collaboration, it was also an entirely skippable experience.